peering into the thickets…
condensed bio
Caleb Walker (they/them) is an experimental composer, conductor, performer, and improviser. Focused on the cross-roads of music composition and improvisation with environmental advocacy, ecological processes, research of the natural world, and queer studies, Caleb strives for intrinsic organicism in their work. Currently based in Boston, Massachusetts, and having graduated from Berklee College of Music in May 2023, Caleb has studied with esteemed composers such as Richard Carrick, Gabrielle Vanoni, Nomi Epstein, Yoon-Ji Lee, Mischa Salkind-Pearl, and Marti Epstein, with notable masterclasses with Chaya Czernowin, Lei Liang, and Chen Yi. Most recently, Caleb will have the privilege of attending New Music on the Point in Vermont as both a composer and performer, where they will have a premiere of their work by the JACK Quartet, and the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice in Colorado, where a piece of theirs for solo percussion will be premiered, both in the summer of 2023. Caleb had their international premiere in Vienna in July of 2022 and has worked with many accomplished performers such as the PHACE ensemble in Vienna, Austria, SPLICE Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Sound Icon, The New Composers String Quartet, and select members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, and the Zodiac Trio. Caleb is a 2022 ASCAP Morton Gould Award Semi-Finalist and the recipient of the 2023 John Bavicchi/Beverly Lewis Award and the 2022 Jeronimas Kacinskas Award in composition from the Berklee composition department. As a conductor and administrator, Caleb was the Executive Director and Assistant Music Director for the Berklee Motion Picture Orchestra from 2022 to 2023, with whom they led to their Jordan Hall debut as a conductor, performer, administrator, arranger, and director. Additionally, they previously interned at the nation’s oldest orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, with the education and community engagement department. Currently, Caleb is exploring electro-acoustic composition and improvisation via live electronics for a new project based on documenting the auditory ecological makeup of Boston Waterways including the Charles River from its origin in Hopkinton to the Boston Harbor, with the plans for a public performance for the local Boston community lifting awareness of the various aquatic ecosystems.
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full bio
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artist statement
I often imagine myself with roots stemming from the bottoms of my feet, connecting me to the ground on which I stand; I strive for this connection in my music and search for ways to initiate a curiosity of the natural world in those who listen to my work. The feeling is serene: you are the base of a towering pine tree listening to the most intimate of sounds-the instant stops-and suddenly the rubbing of bristles, the crunch of leaves, the drips of water become all consuming and rapture you to a state of awe of the microscopic detail that surrounds us.
As an artist, I believe that our connection to our environment is the most important relationship to nourish. By composing and performing music tied to the elements, I am fostering a deeper, richer connection to the soil we stand on. Furthermore, by exploring natural processes and ecology, I strive for intrinsic organicism: music which is bound to the fabric of the forest. It is with this music that I hope to create curiosity and inspiration in my community to nourish the Earth which provides us with our ability to live.